Patience Puzzle - Ring Puzzle

"The oldest known puzzle design, probably of Chinese origin. Popular with 19th century sailors. We make ours with nails made in New England on a machine that has been in use since the Civil War era. (1984)

Patience Puzzle is more a mathmatical puzzle than the other Tavern Puzzles. It has 43 steps, but only a few basic moves. The secret to solving it is discovering the correct sequence."

This is the puzzle that started it all here at BrainPuzzles.com. Seth, the founder of the website, first got his hands on this puzzle just a couple years after it came out back in the 1980s when he was just a kid. It took most of the night and half of the next day to figure out the solution, but he's been hooked on puzzles ever since! Patience puzzle, based on ancient Chinese ring puzzles, has remained his favorite puzzle.